Hundreds of Maryville College alumni from across the globe — including a group in Chattanooga, — will participate in volunteer projects during MC’s second annual KT Global event on April 9.
The initiative, launched by the Maryville College Alumni Association in October 2020, is aimed at uniting alumni worldwide to give their time and talent back to their own communities. Maryville College staff, faculty and students are also invited to participate.
Projects in several cities are currently on the list, and more are expected to be added. Alumni are encouraged to do projects on their own, volunteer with close friends and/or families, or form a group of MC alumni in their community to volunteer together. To date, projects planned include volunteering with local food banks, landscaping and gardening, litter clean-up and recycling, and assisting non-profit agencies that help homeless families and foster children.
The project in Chattanooga, led by Heidi Hoffecker ’89, will include painting raised beds, picnic tables and a composter, as well as the removal of invasive species and spreading compost and mulch, at the Orange Grove Center, 615 Derby St.
Named for Kin Takahashi, a student from Maryville College’s past, KT Global celebrates the “can-do” spirit of a student who, during the 1890s, founded the College’s first football team and led a project to build Bartlett Hall on campus. KT Global is inspired by KT Week (later called KT Days), which was started 25 years ago by a group of alumni as an annual event on campus. Every year, about 100 MC alumni from across the country travel to Maryville to donate to the College something other than money – their time. They stay in the residence halls, eat in the dining hall and sign up for manual labor projects like pressure washing, painting, carpentry, masonry and landscaping.
The COVID-19 pandemic canceled the on-campus event for 2020 and 2021, inspiring the Maryville College Alumni Office to enhance and build upon the event — and provide opportunities for alumni engagement worldwide. KT Global 2021 resulted in 239 volunteers engaging in 38 projects in 26 cities around the USA and in Japan.
“I am so proud of how alumni across the world came together in service for last year’s KT Global and of all the great work done in our communities. It was incredible to feel connected to so many alums in this special way,” said Jennifer Phillips Triplett ’07, one of the KT Global organizers and member of the MCAA. “For 2022, we would like to enlist 478 volunteers in projects, doubling our participation from 2021 and spreading even further that spirit of service that is so important to Maryville College alumni.”